Page 95 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“Stop looking like that.”

I raised a brow. “Like what?”

With a groan, she pushed me back and hopped off the counter angrily, reaching a hand to me. “Visha, now.”

The Delcour heir was less than pleased when she opened her chamber doors to find us disturbing her peace. She stood there staring between the two of us for a long minute before reluctantly letting us through. “Don’t touch that, Your Majesty,” she scolded Snow, who’d gone to play with a bunch of vials.

My dark head picked a bottle up and then dropped it to the ground. The thing cracked and splintered to pieces. “Whoops. I’ll just buy you some new ones.”

I pulled her close to me and away from causing more damage. “That was not very nice, my love.”

The little mischief put a hand to her chest all offence.

“She is only trying to get me to react. Thinks that I will turn into something resembling a fire wrath if I get angry,” Visha said calmly, pointing to a chair for me to take. “How can I be of assistance?”

Snow rushed to my side, kneeling before me and unbuttoning my shirt before I could say anything. “The thing I told you about, from Hanai, it clawed him and he is not healing. Even from Medi healers. Have a look,” she said, peeling back one of my bandages.

Visha leaned in and only stared at my wounds, unblinking. For a long time. The Crafter stood and reached a station of herbs and potions that dressed a whole side of the wall. “It looks like nothing I’ve seen before,” she said, returning with a mortar on which she pushed a pestle to grind a collection of herbs. “From the way it has scarred and the veins around the wounds I can tell the irritation is not from any venom.” She brushed some type of dry herb mix over one of the slashes, reciting one of her verses, and I could have sworn my skin boiled. “Dark magic as I suspected. You were lucky, Your Majesty.”

Snow straightened. “It isn’t that bad, is it?”

Visha’s look was blank when she answered, “If he wasn’t an Obscur, a powerful one at that, he would have died. The thing that has attacked him possesses dark magic. Considering how you described this beast to me, the only possibility a creature of this sort could possess that sort of magic is if it is part of a dark realm.”

“No one from any outer realm can step in Numen after the Ater battles,” Snow said and turned to me. “Right?”

“There are outer realm creatures in Numen, Snow,” I said, and she gaped.

Visha nodded. “Sea of the Dark. Golgotha has always been known to experiment with his creatures.”

“But the demon god has been asleep for centuries. And his creatures cannot survive long out of his waters.”

“It was only a suggestion,” Visha said, slathering a thick brown paste mix all over my wounds and reciting another long verse in Borsich. The pain was already feeling lighter when her magic brushed coolly over my wounds. “The best guess I can make for now.”

She handed Snow a new roll of bandage and turned to me. “Come tomorrow as well, I need to extract the magic essence that the beast has left in your flesh and then once it is drained a simple cast from a Medi healer will help.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Visha.”

Snow kneeled before me and unravelled the long bandage. No one had ever bandaged any of my wounds before. The last I expected to do so was her.

“I hate that you know how to wrap bandages,” I said when her fingers started expertly working the gauze around my body.

“It is handy knowledge.”

“I hate that you find it handy knowledge.”

A little smile. “Bet you don’t hate it now.”

Hooking a finger under her chin, I lifted her face to me. I needed to see that smile better. “Good thing I don’t place bets with losing odds.”

Her lips parted a little. “That is my line.”

“And you are mine, that makes it my line, too.”

Snow frowned, ready to make an angry remark before Visha interrupted her, “The two of you get out. I don’t want to hear any more of that.”

The chamber doors suddenly swung open and a little, wild-haired blonde girl no more than five, squealed and launched in Snow’s direction, knocking her to the ground before smacking kisses all over her face. “Auntie Snow,” she screeched all excited.

“Leanna,” Snow shouted, “get your beast off of me!”